New Lending Code 12 – Financial difficulties section.

It has undoubtedly strengthened the content of the new Lending Code to put the previous guidelines into the body of code. In this section it has not only been incorporated, but the order and groupings have been made more logical.There have been some changes that limit the extent to which debtors were supposed to comply, and this is wise. I don’t think it removes the duty on a debtor to behave responsibly, but since few debtors will see or read the code before falling into arrears it makes no sense to appear to place an obligation on them in the code itself.There are nearly 50 paragraphs altogether in this part and, if they are enforced well, make a good basis for negotiation.Most interesting of all, perhaps, is the inclusion of a paragraph on treatment of micro-enterprise borrowers. I shall discuss this next time, and then cover the parts of the financial difficulties’ section, before describing the rest of the code.Joseph Harris – Debt Control Man